As last album by these fantastically named slushers ended up in my review pile it was natural that I picked the new one out from the pile of discs sent over courtesy of Russian label Solitude Productions and their associated BadMoodMan sister outfit. I think what drew them to me in the first place was their name and also a nice looking drink on the cover of their 2010 album ‘Bitterness Of The Years That Are Lost’, which I described as containing slow serenades of thickest doom. The Moscow based band were a challenge as their music really was bleak and that is by doom’s heavy standards and it left me feeling somewhat on a downer. If I was expecting the band to have suddenly got all jolly between albums I would have been surprised and there is not a shred of joviality about this new creation. So if you are looking for a grim old time come right in.
Having said that there is a certain sense of black humour about first song ‘The Day Of Marvin Heemeyer’ and the odd samples on it intrigued so naturally I looked up to see who he was. Basically ole Marv did something all of us think about doing at one time or another and went postal. Just to make his spree particularly impressive and destructive though he did it with a bulldozer! You can read and indeed see all about his exploits if you wish to look them up it is a sad tale of a man not taking anymore and the only death his message resulted in was sadly his own as he intended. The song itself is more doom death than pure doom and sticks out like the slow lumbering beast of the Killdozer itself causing crunching slow wreckage and mangled concrete as it rides roughshod over everything in its path. Favourite track on the album without a doubt and the bite behind E.S. vocals and the samples from the newscast really add to the intriguing tale. Nice that someone paid tribute to Marvin here, a true hero of our times!
Plaintive piano spreads sorrow on ‘Refinement Of The Mould’ we are in slow doom territory here as a shroud is cast over ponderous riffs and lower than low leonine craggy growls. The singer really has got a deep range that once heard is difficult to forget with the funeral doom pacing of the song makes an interesting contrast. Some shrill guitar cadences and tones are a bit reminiscent of early Bride but these sort of similarities are always going to be found and this lot are certainly quite unique in their miserable craft. The rest of the album does really kind of wear the listener down and brief piano interludes and a song with a musical box effect intro are the only rays of light on the group’s slowest of slow delivery. As for ‘Funeral March No14’ it is a well-known dirge done by the band sounding even slower than normal. As this is published they are burying a nasty witch and this can be her perfect soundtrack to the pits of hell! It’s a slightly more upbeat ending but it couldn’t be any less really for ‘Of Immortality’ but still it’s a sound mired of deepest downcast doom and there is not much on the whole to actually enjoy about this album. Some would say that is the point of this style of doom but I feel I have to reflect it in the mark. WDISS really are for those who vegetate in depressive states. Cover art is nice though!
(6/10 Pete Woods)
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